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12.09.2011

Tutorial: Christmas Stockings

Good news, folks: the stocking tutorial has been completed less than one century after I said it would be. Read on for the marathon tutorial about how I made our Christmas stockings. It will take less than a century to read, I promise.

First: the fabric details. It took about 1.5 yards of fabric to make these. You’ll want something durable so that the stocking doesn’t rip when you fill it. I used gray denim, which I bought from Joann’s for $.85 a yard, making both of these stockings ring up way cheaper than any stockings I could ever buy. And, I actually used what I believe is supposed to be the “wrong” side of the fabric, but it’s way nicer looking than the “right” side, which I happily discovered when I started to unwind the bolt of fabric in the store. You’ll see the technically “right” side in the first picture below.

To make the stocking with the bow:

1. Cut out a template for the stocking shape in the size of your choice. I did this freehand on newspaper. The plus is that, if you select your newspaper well, you can simultaneously read up on improving sour boss-employee relationships while you’re at it.

2. Cut out your pieces. For this stocking, you’ll have 5 individual pieces, 3 of which make up the bow itself. You can see from the image below that the bow piece should be approximately twice the height you want the bow to be when all is said and done, because you’re going to fold the material, making it significantly shorter in height. It should also be, right now, about 4” wider than the width of the stocking itself, because the folding will make it curve on the edges and you want there to be plenty of overlap. The length of the ribbons is up to you; the bow “knot” can be adjusted once you put everything together.

This labeled picture helps you see what I mean by each piece of the bow:

3. Hem the raw edges that will be showing after all is assembled. There are more meticulous ways of going about this, but my imprecise process involves folding over the edge and ironing it…

…then folding it over again, ironing it, and stitching that shut using the sewing machine. No pins involved.

4. Create the bow. This picture shows you how much bigger the bow piece is going to start out versus what it looks like when all of the folding is done.

Fold the fabric accordion style, then pinch it in the middle. See how much smaller it gets?

Use a needle and thread to tack the middle together by hand.

5. Assemble the bow and stocking pieces for sewing. Do this by first laying the bow good side up on the front of the stocking, good side also up. Make sure the bow is as centered as possible and that it extends past the top edge of stocking. Pin it in place.

Then, place the back of the stocking good side down on top of these pieces. Pin in place. Use more than 4 pins. (That’s all I could find…)

6. Sew it all together, and trim off the excess bow fabric before turning the whole thing right side out. My novice sewing skills made it a little difficult to navigate the curves of the stocking foot, but with more practice I think my stitching would be much smoother.

7. Attach the ribbon and bow “knot.” I somehow forgot to take pictures of this step, but I do have some glowing blue pictures from when I made a similar bow pillow, so I’ll use those. I slipped the bow “knot” good side down behind the center of the bow form, then lined up the ribbon where I wanted it to be, then wrapped the bow “knot” around the ribbon and the center of the bow form itself and hot glued it all into place.

I suppose you could, alternatively, sew these pieces on by hand if hot glue isn’t your idea of a Classy Sewing Tool. :)

8. Create the loopy hanging thing. That is probably not what it’s actually called, I’m guessing. Take a piece of scrap fabric (mine was about 6” long) and fold it over a bunch of times before sewing it shut…

Except for one small problem. Your husband ALSO needs a stocking. So you’re not actually done, and must begin the process all over again…

To make the stocking with the layered “cuff”:

1. Repeat step one from above.

2. Cut out your pieces. For this stocking, you’ll have 9 pieces total: two stocking pieces and seven strips of 2” wide fabric. Mine were about 3” longer than the width of the stocking itself.

3. Hem the raw edges that will be showing after all is assembled. I only hemmed one edge of the strips because I knew the other wouldn’t show and I like to cut corners be efficient. See step #3 above for my process.

4. Assemble the pieces and pin them in place. I played around with different layering, but ended up making the strips sort of haphazardly placed on the front of the stocking. Rick’s not a haphazard guy, but it seemed to be more interesting than keeping them all perfectly aligned.

Again, lay the back of the stocking good side down on top of these pieces and pin into place (see the second picture under step 4 above for a visual).

5. Sew it all together and turn it right side out. Once it was turned right side out, I noticed a small problem. My fabric strips were not staying place like I envisioned they would. They separated when the stocking was manipulated. Not okay.

To fix this, I called in my favorite Classy Sewing Tool: hot glue. A few dots under each, and they were no longer squirming.

6. Attach the loopy hanging thing. See step 8 above.

And now you’re REALLY done. Hooray!

You can finish the process by hanging your two new stockings by the chimney with care. Or on the nearest dining room fantel-mantel-hutch.

So…any questions? ;)

If you try this, I’d love to see pictures. Please also let me know if anything doesn’t make sense!

I have been planning on making stockings for this holiday season, and was finally looking up patterns today, since I have the day free. I absolutely love what you did with the tops and I am going to make all of them like the husband version, because I just love the texture it gives. My fabric is a bit different, but I think it will turn out perfect anyhow. THANKS!